Family Guy gets away with murder weekly, but that's especially true when it comes to episodes (or entire movies for that matter) that satirize the highly litigious house of Star Wars. Want to know why?

Turns out George Lucas himself is a fan of the animated series. "Lucasfilm is probably the only company out there right now that is progressive enough to allow this," Seth MacFarlane told the LA Times. "Certainly we would have a laugh doing this with Indiana Jones or Wrath of Khan. But I can't imagine in a billion years that Paramount would give us permission."

Fox ended up looking to clear rights with LucasFilm after MacFarlane and co. continued to make small Star Wars gags on the show. Worried the wrath of Lucas would hit the network, they groveled at the bearded one's throne and to MacFarlane's surprise, LucasFilm okayed any references to the franchise as long as Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, Brian, Stewie and the rest of the characters looked just like the stars of the film.

When Family Guy's first Star Wars spoof, Blue Harvest, aired, George invited the show's team up to Skywalker Ranch to watch it with him and his son. How rad is that?